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MP Neil Parish breaks down as he quits for watching porn in Commons – but claims he was trying to look at TRACTORS
THE Tory MP caught watching porn in the Commons quit yesterday — and claimed he had been trying to look at tractors.
Neil Parish insisted he stumbled across the X-rated video by mistake while searching online for vehicles for his family farm.
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But he told how in a “moment of madness” he deliberately watched the seedy scene again while sitting at the side of the chamber waiting to vote.
Mr Parish, 65, finally bowed to pressure and announced he will stand down — three days after being spotted ogling the video on his phone by two horrified Tory colleagues.
Last night he choked back tears as he told how the sordid saga had besmirched his reputation and brought his 22-year career in politics to an abrupt end.
He had at first vowed to continue as Tiverton and Honiton MP, despite being suspended from the party.
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But he said the tidal wave of outrage had caused untold harm to his family and constituents and admitted: “It just isn’t worth carrying on.”
Dad-of-two Mr Parish said: “I’ll have to live with this for the rest of my life. I made a terrible mistake and I’m here to tell the world.
“The situation was, funnily enough, it was tractors I was looking at, so I did get into another website with sort of a very similar name and I watched it for a bit, which I shouldn’t have done.
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“My crime — my biggest crime — is that on another occasion I went in a second time — and that was deliberate. That was sitting waiting to vote.”
Mr Parish, who chairs the influential Commons environment, food and rural affairs committee, accepted he was “totally wrong” to view porn at work.
He added: “I was wrong in what I was doing. But this idea that I was there watching it, intimidating women . . . I mean, I have 12 years in Parliament and probably got one of the best reputations ever — or did have.”
Asked why he chose to view the material in the Commons, he replied: “I don’t know. I think I must have taken complete leave of my senses and my sensibilities and my sense of decency — everything.”
His resignation will trigger a by-election in the Devon seat, which has a Tory majority of 24,239.
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner expressed her bafflement at the MP’s explanation.
She said: “Neil Parish must think you were all born yesterday. Boris Johnson’s Conservatives are a national embarrassment.”
Mr Parish spent yesterday morning doing his rounds on his family farm, where a Claas Dominator 76 combine harvester and a Massey Ferguson 265 tractor were seen in a nearby barn.
The shamed MP had the whip suspended on Friday and referred himself to the parliamentary standards watchdog, saying he viewed the website by mistake.
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He had vowed to quit if a probe found him guilty.
Last night Tiverton and Honiton Conservatives said: “We support his decision to step down.”
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